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Thursday, September 08, 2005

Writers in the Storm

Romance writers across the country responded to the plight of the hundreds of thousands displaced by Hurricane Katrina. These are women, for the most part, who have full-time jobs, families, deadlines, and responsibilities of their own, yet they set aside their own burdens and took up the burdens of others.

Why? The reasons are as varied as the women themselves. For some, it was because other romance writers, people they knew personally, lost everything to the hurricane. For others it was because they have skills needed by the victims—nursing skills, counseling skills, organization skills. For a few, it was because they’ve been blessed and are quick to share what God has given them.

Kensington Author Sandy Blair opened her beautiful home to a family of total strangers. Her husband grabbed them as they climbed from a bus, straight from New Orleans. He didn’t even wait for them to go through the FEMA processing. He had no idea who these people were, but he knew they needed his help. He took them home, and he and Sandy opened their home, and their hearts. They bought the family clothes and shoes (they were barefoot when they arrived in Texas), fed them, supplied them with toiletries and personal items. Karen Potter offered her calling card so the refugee family could call fellow writer Dr. Debra Holland, who had offered her services as a crisis counselor. (Dr. Holland was also in the process of making arrangements to fly to the Gulf Coast to counsel other refugees.) Other members of the Wet Noodle Posse (http://www.wetnoodleposse.com/) sent Target and Wal-Mart gift cards to the family.

Author Bridget Stuart took her boys shopping to buy supplies to take to relief organizations. The daughters of one Dallas author set up a lemonade stand in their front yard to raise money for disaster relief. The children of another emptied their piggy banks to help out. Three-time Golden Heart winner Delle Jacobs donated custom cover art for auction.

Austin author Amy Elias, a member of the eHarlequin online community and a registered nurse, worked long, hard hours packing relief kits, then treated wounds and gave tetanus shots to refugees who flooded the Palmer Center. She went back the next day to work a thirteen hour shift with patients with Alzheimers and dementia. Many other members of eHarlequin contributed time, money, critiques for auctions, and prayers as they were able. Merry is busy making quilts for refugees. Josh is a Navy weatherman who helped coordinate the flights of relief planes. Harlequin has donated money to the relief effort.

JoAnn Ross was one of many authors and editors participating in auctions on eBay to offer critiques to raise money for hurricane victims. Several of the Dallas Area Romance Authors were on hand at Reunion Arena to offer help, as well as gathering books to help the refugees take their mind off their problems for a little while. Many authors have opened their checkbooks and offered most of their available cash.

Nora Roberts is matching any donations made to Habitat for Humanity if they’re mailed to her husband’s bookstore. And the list just goes on and on.

The stories these authors have to tell about the people they’ve helped would break your heart. We heard about the looters and shooters, about the rapes and murders in the Superdome. But the real people of New Orleans and Gulfport and Pass Christian are the people who have nothing left, yet are grateful to be alive. They are the people who worry more about others than about themselves, telling rescuers to take care of the next fellow because he needs help more than they do—when all they have are the clothes on their backs. They are the mothers who have been separated from their children and have no idea if they are dead or alive. They are the families coming apart at the seams from the stress they've just been through. The children starting new schools far from home, strangers in strange circumstances, who are afraid to make friends because they will probably change schools again in a few days or weeks.

I'm so proud of these women who are going above and beyond to do whatever they can for people they don't know and may never meet.

Ask David

Story Finds

Just Contemporary Romance

About My Books

Wild child Lacy Fitzgerald may have made one bet too many. This time, the stakes are her trust fund, her freedom, and even her single status. To win, she must take her father's seed money and create a successful lingerie company in one year, and she must do it on her own. Six months into it, out of money and deeply in debt, she hires a handsome hunk to make her catalog sizzle and her sales soar.

But far from being a typical lingerie model, there's more to Gabriel Wallace than meets her eyes or her hands. Gabe isn't a down-on-his-luck construction worker standing in the unemployment line. He's not broke and desperate for any job, even one that has him posing in nothing but skin and his shorts. And he's most definitely not the kind of guy who wears skintight, heart-speckled silk briefs under his rugged jeans.

But for the chance to spend time with Lacy, Gabe will do almost anything. Anything, that is, except tell her who he really is.

To My Readers:Double Exposure is a story very dear to my heart. Lacy and Gabe deserve each other, but parental interference threatens their chance at happiness. How many of us have had the same experience? I hope you enjoy reading their story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Desperate to break away from her overbearing mother and holier-than-thou sister, Cassie Mills takes on a moonlighting job she'd never have considered otherwise. But she needs money, and she needs it now.

Cassie runs afoul of an outdated and rarely enforced law when she decides to host Pleasure Parties. Reed Stevens is working undercover on the vice squad, not his favorite assignment, especially when he's assigned to what he considers fluff duty, cracking down on the home party sex toy business.

Cassie faces her greatest fear--what will her mother think?--and her aunt's Bridge Club. Reed faces a jealous and unstable partner, his ex-wife and her new love, and the wrath of Cassie's supporters. Neither one is prepared for the day when their professional paths cross. Shock, feelings of betrayal, lust, and love all intermingle until neither one is sure who is right and who is wrong.

Caramia Kensington makes a living setting up seduction scenes for rich playboys. Imagine her surprise when her current customer turns out to be her old high school flame, Grayson Montgomery. And the woman he plans to seduce is Cara.

Cara refused to have sex with Gray when they were fifteen. She had plans and dreams for her life, and they didn't include risking an unplanned pregnancy. She made him a promise: if they were both still single at thirty, she'd have sex with him. And the next day is her thirtieth birthday.

Gray plans to collect on that promise Cara made back in high school. But his plans don't end with one night. Somehow he has to convince her he has staying power, that he will still be there in the morning, and for the rest of her life. Not an easy task when Cara has been left by every man in her life so far.

Regina Baker has loved Sam Hyatt since the third grade, but Sam has an ideal woman in mind, and Reggie doesn't even come close. As the heir to a sizable fortune, Sam has a responsibility to marry well. His wife needs to be well bred, well educated, and well heeled. As a poor preacher's daughter with a landscaping business that barely pays the bills, Reggie feels like a mangy mutt compared to Sam's current girlfriend, who has a pedigree a mile long.

Their matchmaking friends, Cara and Gray, arrange for Sam and Reggie to join them on a two week cruise, where Sam will have a chance to see what he's been missing without the society trappings he's normally surrounded by, and Reggie will have two weeks to win Sam's heart.

Judge Madelyn Cooper never shows signs of weakness, but when a killer threatens her daughter's life, Maddie does what any mother would do. Run to the place where her daughter will be safe. And that place is Greendale, Texas. Maddie left Greendale fourteen years earlier, pregnant, broke, and without saying a word to Rand McCade. What could she say after her father killed his parents?

Rand McCade is determined to keep Greendale safe. As Sheriff, he promised there would be no repeats of the horrible day when his parents were murdered. Now Maddie is back, bringing trouble with her once again. And this time, she has a daughter. His daughter.

As a psychopath sets his sights on Maddie, Rand and Maddie must figure out who is after her, and why, before someone else ends up dead.

Logan Tanner shook the red dust of West Texas off his boots at the age of eighteen and hasn't looked back. When his father has a stroke, Logan is temporarily forced to return home and take over the family ranch. He still feels responsible for his mother's death when he was twelve, and has never gotten over the guilt. Now he's faced with having to protect his twelve year old daughter Katie and his sister and her friend Megan Flynn. It's nearly more than one man can handle. He can't wait to get back to Dallas.

Megan Flynn immediately falls in love with Morris Springs, Texas, population 976, when she delivers Logan's runaway daughter to his doorstep. Raised as a city girl, Megan has a dream of a few acres, a few champion Blue Heelers, and a small-town veterinary practice. The only thing standing between her and her dream is one stubborn, reluctant cowboy with an overprotective streak as wide as the West Texas prairie. But her stubborn streak is a match for his any day. And she's determined to prove it.

Blame it on Texas is a story of the power of love to overcome any adversity, the strength of family and friendship, and the joy that comes with being part of something bigger than yourself.

From the softer side of Tori Scott, a story of two single parents brought together by a shared accident, a teenager with an attitude, and a little girl who steals everyone's hearts.

Sandy Morrow's four year old daughter is hit by an SUV as she's riding her tricycle down the sidewalk near her home. Her new next door neighbors, Hunter Thurman and his son Jason, had been arguing just before Jason jumped in the vehicle and took off without looking behind him. Now her daughter has a concussion and a broken leg,and Sandy has a sexy neighbor who will stop at nothing to make it up to her.Whether she wants him to or not.

Hunter Thurman has a mission: to fix the mess his son has made and to fix the mess he's made of his son's life. He is determined to take care of his next door neighbor and her daughter after the accident, but Sandy is independent and determined to take care of herself, insisting she doesn't need Hunter's help.

This book is dedicated to the men and women who leave homes and families to defend their country and champion freedom across the globe. You have our everlasting gratitude and we pray for your safety.

About Me

Award winning, Amazon best-selling author Tori Scott lives in East Texas with her husband Tony and her dog Blue. When she's not writing, you might find her taking pictures of random things or hanging out on Facebook or Twitter.